Knowledge of the pericardium (pericardial sac) dates back to the time of Galen (129-200 A.D.) the Greek physician and anatomist who created the term “pericardium.” The pericardium (pericardial sac) is a conical membranous sac in which the heart and the commencement of the great vessels are contained. Gray's Anatomy (1977 ed.) pp. 457-460. The pericardium is fluid-filled and functions to prevent dilation of the chambers of the heart, lubricates the surfaces of the heart, and maintains the heart in a fixed geometric position. It also provides a barrier to the spread of infection from adjacent structures in the chest cavity and prevents surrounding tissue(s) from adhering to the heart. The space between the pericardium and the heart, known as the pericardial space, is normally small in volume and includes the fluid therein. It has been reported by others that when fluid is injected into the pericardial space it accumulates in the atrioventricular and interventricular grooves, but not over the ventricular surfaces. See, Shabetai R, “Pericardial and Cardiac Pressure,” in Circulation, 77:1 (1988).
Pericardiocentesis, or puncture of the pericardium, heretofore has been performed for: 1) diagnosis of pericardial disease(s) by study of the pericardial fluid; 2) withdrawal of pericardial fluid for the treatment of acute cardiac tamponade; and 3) infusion of therapeutic agents for the treatment of malignant effusion or tumors. Thus, at present, intrapericardial injection of drugs is clinically limited to the treatment of abnormal pericardial conditions and diseases, such as malignant or loculated pericardial effusions and tumors. Drugs that have been injected into the pericardial space include antibiotic (sclerosing) agents, such as tetracycline and bleomycin or fibrinolytic agents such as streptokinase.
Intrapericardial drug delivery has not been clinically utilized for heart-specific treatments where pericardial pathology is normal, because the pericardial space is normally small and very difficult to access without invasive surgery or risk of cardiac injury by standard needle pericardiocentesis techniques. Normally, pericardiocentesis procedures are carried out by highly specialized, personnel in the cardiac catheterization laboratory of medical facilities, assisted by fluoroscopy and electrocardiogram monitoring equipment. Electrocardiographic monitoring of pericardiocentesis, using the pericardial needle as an electrode is commonly employed, as disclosed in Bishop L. H., et al., “The Electrocardiogram as a Safeguard in Pericardiocentesis,” in JMA, 162:264 (1956), and Neill J. R., et al., “A Pericardiocentesis Electrode,” in The New England Journal of Medicine, 264:711 (1961); Gotsman M. S., et al. “A Pericardiocentesis Electrode Needle,” in Br. Heart J., 28:566 (1966); and Kerber R. E., et al., “Electrocardiographic Indications of Atrial Puncture During Pericardiocentesis,” in The New England Journal of Medicine, 282:1142 (1970). An echocardiographic transducer with a central lumen has also been used to guide the pericardiocentesis needle as reported in Goldberg B. B., et al., “Ultrasonically Guided Pericardiocentesis,” in Amer. J. Cardiol., 31:490 (1973).
However, there are complications associated with needle pericardiocentesis. These complications include laceration of a coronary artery or the right ventricle, perforation of the right atrium or ventricle, puncture of the stomach or colon, pneumothorax, arrhythmia, tamponade, hypertension, ventricular fibrillation, and death. Complication rates for needle pericardiocentesis are increased in situations where the pericardial space and fluid effusion volume is small (i.e., the pericardial size is more like normal and not abnormally distended by the accumulation of fluid, e.g., blood).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,428 (Chin et al.) discloses a method and apparatus for accessing the pericardial space for the insertion of implantable defibrillation leads. This method requires gripping the pericardium with a forceps device and cutting the pericardium with a scalpel (pericardiotomy) under direct vision through a subxiphoid surgical incision.
Uchida Y., et al., “Angiogenic Therapy of acute Myocardial Infarction by Intrapericardial Injection of Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor and Heparin Sulfate,” in Circulation AHA Abstracts (1994), reported a method for the intrapericardial injection of angiogenic agents. While not described in detail, this method generally involved the percutaneous transcatheter bolus injection of drugs into the pericardial cavity via the right atrium. A major drawback of this method is that the right atrial wall is crossed, that could lead to bleeding into the pericardial space. In addition, the method involved the bolus injection of drugs rather than long-term delivery via a catheter of controlled release material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,578 (Cohen) discloses an apparatus for accessing the pericardial space for placement of defibrillation electrodes. The apparatus uses suction to “pull” the pericardium against a perforating needle housed in an outer catheter, thus impaling the pericardium on the needle (col. 15, lines 54-57). One of the stated problems with the apparatus is loss of suction. Col. 15, lines 4-5. A solution to the loss of suction proposed in the patent is to apply suction to pull the pericardium into the lumen of the catheter, apply a wire suture to stabilize the catheter tip and subsequently advance a piercing needle into the pericardium sutured to the catheter. In addition to other disadvantages the added step of suturing in this method is undesirable.
Another method for intrapericardial injection of agents is performed by a device, available under the name PerDUCER™ pericardial access device, available from Comedicus Incorporated, 3839 Central Avenue, NE, Columbia Heights, Minn. 55431. This device uses suction to create a lifted section of the pericardium, called a “bleb.” Specifically, the bleb is secured to an elongate access device by a suction force exerted through a side wall port that is in a plane parallel to the longitudinal access of the device. Once formed, the bleb is punctured by a needle of limited travel that penetrates the bleb in a direction substantially tangential to the epicardial surface of the heart. While creating a bleb by suction through a side wall port combined with a tangential needle approach to the bleb can reduce the chance of puncturing or lacerating the myocardium, accurately penetrating the pericardium at a desired location may be difficult due to the motion of the heart during normal cardiac contraction relative to the orientation of the axial dimension of the a device.
Accordingly, there is a need for an accurate system for localized penetration of the pericardium which has low risk of causing penetration or laceration of the myocardium. Moreover, there is a need to effectively penetrate the pericardium without the chance of loss of vacuum and repeated attempts to effect penetration.